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   1  =head1 NAME
   2  
   3  perl582delta - what is new for perl v5.8.2
   4  
   5  =head1 DESCRIPTION
   6  
   7  This document describes differences between the 5.8.1 release and
   8  the 5.8.2 release.
   9  
  10  If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.6.1, first read
  11  the L<perl58delta>, which describes differences between 5.6.0 and
  12  5.8.0, and the L<perl581delta>, which describes differences between
  13  5.8.0 and 5.8.1.
  14  
  15  =head1 Incompatible Changes
  16  
  17  For threaded builds for modules calling certain re-entrant system calls,
  18  binary compatibility was accidentally lost between 5.8.0 and 5.8.1.
  19  Binary compatibility with 5.8.0 has been restored in 5.8.2, which
  20  necessitates breaking compatibility with 5.8.1. We see this as the
  21  lesser of two evils.
  22  
  23  This will only affect people who have a threaded perl 5.8.1, and compiled
  24  modules which use these calls, and now attempt to run the compiled modules
  25  with 5.8.2. The fix is to re-compile and re-install the modules using 5.8.2.
  26  
  27  =head1 Core Enhancements
  28  
  29  =head2 Hash Randomisation
  30  
  31  The hash randomisation introduced with 5.8.1 has been amended. It
  32  transpired that although the implementation introduced in 5.8.1 was source
  33  compatible with 5.8.0, it was not binary compatible in certain cases. 5.8.2
  34  contains an improved implementation which is both source and binary
  35  compatible with both 5.8.0 and 5.8.1, and remains robust against the form of
  36  attack which prompted the change for 5.8.1.
  37  
  38  We are grateful to the Debian project for their input in this area.
  39  See L<perlsec/"Algorithmic Complexity Attacks"> for the original
  40  rationale behind this change.
  41  
  42  =head2 Threading
  43  
  44  Several memory leaks associated with variables shared between threads
  45  have been fixed.
  46  
  47  =head1 Modules and Pragmata
  48  
  49  =head2 Updated Modules And Pragmata
  50  
  51  The following modules and pragmata have been updated since Perl 5.8.1:
  52  
  53  =over 4
  54  
  55  =item Devel::PPPort
  56  
  57  =item Digest::MD5
  58  
  59  =item I18N::LangTags
  60  
  61  =item libnet
  62  
  63  =item MIME::Base64
  64  
  65  =item Pod::Perldoc
  66  
  67  =item strict
  68  
  69  Documentation improved
  70  
  71  =item Tie::Hash
  72  
  73  Documentation improved
  74  
  75  =item Time::HiRes
  76  
  77  =item Unicode::Collate
  78  
  79  =item Unicode::Normalize
  80  
  81  =item UNIVERSAL
  82  
  83  Documentation improved
  84  
  85  =back
  86  
  87  =head1 Selected Bug Fixes
  88  
  89  Some syntax errors involving unrecognized filetest operators are now handled
  90  correctly by the parser.
  91  
  92  =head1 Changed Internals
  93  
  94  Interpreter initialization is more complete when -DMULTIPLICITY is off.
  95  This should resolve problems with initializing and destroying the Perl
  96  interpreter more than once in a single process.                      
  97  
  98  =head1 Platform Specific Problems
  99  
 100  Dynamic linker flags have been tweaked for Solaris and OS X, which should
 101  solve problems seen while building some XS modules.
 102  
 103  Bugs in OS/2 sockets and tmpfile have been fixed.
 104  
 105  In OS X C<setreuid> and friends are troublesome - perl will now work
 106  around their problems as best possible.
 107  
 108  =head1 Future Directions
 109  
 110  Starting with 5.8.3 we intend to make more frequent maintenance releases,
 111  with a smaller number of changes in each. The intent is to propagate
 112  bug fixes out to stable releases more rapidly and make upgrading stable
 113  releases less of an upheaval. This should give end users more
 114  flexibility in their choice of upgrade timing, and allow them easier
 115  assessment of the impact of upgrades. The current plan is for code freezes
 116  as follows
 117  
 118  =over 4
 119  
 120  =item *
 121  
 122  5.8.3 23:59:59 GMT, Wednesday December 31st 2003
 123  
 124  =item *
 125  
 126  5.8.4 23:59:59 GMT, Wednesday March 31st 2004
 127  
 128  =item *
 129  
 130  5.8.5 23:59:59 GMT, Wednesday June 30th 2004
 131  
 132  =back
 133  
 134  with the release following soon after, when testing is complete.
 135  
 136  See L<perl581delta/"Future Directions"> for more soothsaying.
 137  
 138  =head1 Reporting Bugs
 139  
 140  If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles
 141  recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl
 142  bug database at http://bugs.perl.org/.  There may also be
 143  information at http://www.perl.com/, the Perl Home Page.
 144  
 145  If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug>
 146  program included with your release.  Be sure to trim your bug down
 147  to a tiny but sufficient test case.  Your bug report, along with the
 148  output of C<perl -V>, will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be
 149  analysed by the Perl porting team.  You can browse and search
 150  the Perl 5 bugs at http://bugs.perl.org/
 151  
 152  =head1 SEE ALSO
 153  
 154  The F<Changes> file for exhaustive details on what changed.
 155  
 156  The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl.
 157  
 158  The F<README> file for general stuff.
 159  
 160  The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information.
 161  
 162  =cut